public care little about the persons or offices of the Hic petit Euphraten juvenis, domitique Batavi Juvenal. sat. 8. A statue of Hermes was religiously set up against the houses at Athens, of a cubic form, without hands or feet. This was called Herma. The figures here described were merely roughhewn square stones, technically called termes, set upright; but however shapeless the posts, the heads with which they were surmounted were of marble. Hermes also was used as a direction-post. He had no fingers, ours have no heads. The general opinion is, that the Greek name of the god was derived ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑρμηνεύειν, which means to show, ΟΙ explain; and thence some of his attributes at least, among the rest that of standing by the roadside to With Cinna's invitation, he had given the elder Marius the title of proconsul, and had sent him the fasces and other badges of that dignity. During the operations against Rome, Cinna sent a party of soldiers to take possession of Ariminum, that no assistance might be sent from Gaul. Appius Claudius, to whom the guard of Janiculum had been intrusted, received Marius and Cinna into the place; but they were driven out again by Pompeius Strabo and Octavius the consul. But Metellus was so much better a general than Octavius, that the soldiers of the latter proposed to transfer their services to the former. Metellus reproved them severely, and commanded them to return to the consul; but instead of obeying, they went over to the other party. Cinna had recourse to his old expedient: he proclaimed liberty to all the slaves in the city who should join him. As might naturally be expected, they flocked to him in crowds. The senate became greatly alarmed. The people were suffering much from the failure of their provisions, which seemed likely to produce general discontent. They therefore sent deputies to Cinna, and made an ineffectual attempt to negociate a peace. On the termination of the conference, Cinna advanced and encamped under the walls. The senate were entirely at a loss how to act, in consequence of their unwillingness to depose Merula, who had been appointed consul in the room of Cinna. Merula voluntarily laid down his office, to remove all possible impediment in the way of the public tranquillity. The senate immediately sent a fresh commission to Cinna, with directions to acknowledge him as consul. At the conference Marius was standing close to Cinna's tribunal. Cinna soon afterwards entered Rome; but Marius stopped at the gate, saying with gloomy and inauspicious sternness, that he was an exile, and forbidden to enter the city by the laws. If the people wanted his presence, they must repeal the sentence of banishment against him. It does not appear as if Cinna and Marius were on very good terms at this juncture; but community of crime and cruelty soon reconciled them. Ὅτι οἱ περὶ τὸν Κίνναν καὶ Μάριον συνεδρεύσαντες μετὰ τῶν ἐπιφανεσάτων ἡγεμόνων ἐβουλεύοντο, ὅπως βεβαίως καταςήσωσι τὴν εἰρήνην· τέλος ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς τοὺς ἐπιφανεσάτους τῶν ἐχθρῶν, καὶ δυναμένους ἀμφισβητῆσαι περὶ πραγμάτων, πάντας ἀποκλεῖναι· ὅπως καθαρᾶς γενομένης τῆς ἰδίας αἱρέσεως καὶ μερίδος, ἀδεῶς τὸ λοιπὸν, καὶ ὡς ἂν βούλωνται, μελὰ τῶν φίλων διοικοῦσι τά καλὰ τήν ἡγεμονίαν. — Ecloga ex libro Diodori, 38. "Ju Cinna at a subsequent period commanded the officers to declare him consul a third time, without even the formality of holding the comitia. He and his colleague Carbo continued themselves in the consulship the year following, 669, and 88 before Christ. Suetonius gives the following account of his daughter's marriage with Julius Cæsar: lius Cæsar Divus, annum agens sextum decimum, patrem amisit: sequentibusque consulibus, dimissa Cossutia, quæ, familia equestri, sed admodum dives, prætextato desponsata fuerat, Corneliam Cinnæ quater consulis filiam, duxit uxorem, ex qua illi mox Julia nata est; neque ut repudiaret compelli a Dictatore Sulla ullo modo potuit."- Cap. 1. Great preparations were made against the Proconsul Sylla, but they made no impression on his courage or resolution. He wrote a letter to the senate, enumerating all his great actions, from the period of his quæstorship up to that of the consul ate, against the Numidians, the Cimbri, and the Italians. He related his victories over Mithridates with much amplification, and expatiated largely on the number of nations he had reduced to obedience and allegiance to the republic. But on nothing did he value himself so highly, as that his camp had been an asylum for those of the Roman citizens, whom Cinna's cruel and profligate conduct had driven into banishment. The senate seems at this time to have lost all its firmness; and as it was dragooned into suffering Merula to abdicate, for the purpose of making terms with Cinna, so now this haughty and ostentatious letter produced the intended effect of intimidation. Cinna promised to obey the order, to raise no more troops while the negotiation with Sylla was pending. But practice makes perfect: and Cinna was a promisebreaker of long standing and repeated experience. No sooner had the deputies taken their departure from Rome, than the consuls made a progress through Italy. They enlisted soldiers, and formed different armies to oppose their enemy. But Cinna's career was to be closed abruptly, with what critics call poetical justice, and plain men look at as moral retribution. Some of the newly raised levies refused to embark for Dalmatia. Cinna assembled them, and threatened to enforce obedience. soldiers, who could not expect such a breach of discipline to be forgiven by so vindictive a man, mutinied, and murdered him. It is stated by Plutarch, that in addition to the obvious motives for this mutiny, the hatred entertained against Cinna was enhanced by the suspicion that he had murdered Pompey, who lived to experience many vicissitudes, and to acquire the title of the Great. The A circumstance is related respecting Cinna's conduct in his last moments, which points his tale with an important moral. To take a prominent part in civil broils, and to commit great personal crimes, both involve the necessity of strong nerves: but they do not necessarily imply mental courage of the genuine kind. Cinna, in his flight on the breaking out of the sedition, was overtaken by a centurion. That officer was the man who slew him but Cinna attempted to purchase the remission of the unauthorised sentence by falling on his knees, and offering a seal ring of great value as the price of his life. |